Television in the Third Reich

"Pick of the Day" by Mary Novakovich

The worldís first television service was launched, not by the BBC in 1936, but by the Germans a year earlier. And it was only recently that many of those long ‚ lost Nazi programmes were discovered. They make creepily fascinating viewing. Propaganda king Joseph Goebbels didnít think much of television as a useful medium, so those fledging programme ‚ makers had the freedom to film the annual Nazi party conferences and were given intimate access to the 1936 Olympic Games. Showing how little has changed, the schedules were filled with cookery, gardening and various blonde presenters, but broadcasts ended with "Heil Hitler".